5 UB R O SA . 



363 



value is enhanced when these correlations are dis- 

 cerned. A broad mind now sweeps the horizon of 

 agricultural science in the hope that some bolder 

 view may be gained. The study of plants in refer- 

 ence to climate fall under three general heads : 



1. The study of the distribution of plants over 

 the earth is known as the geograpJiy of platits. This 

 term appears to have been used by St. Pierre in a 

 somewhat fanciful manner, but Humboldt first gave 

 it form and life. Humboldt held the world in his 

 hands, and discerned and measured the distribution 

 of life. Tournefort has long before discerned the 

 resemblance of successive mountain floras to the 

 floras of successive degrees of latitude, and others 

 had written of the floras of particular regions ; but 

 Humboldt encircled the globe with law. 



2. The study of the variation of plants as influ- 

 enced by change of place may be styled the cH)natal 

 variation of plants. This proceeds from the study 

 of the geography of plants, yet is wholly distinct 

 from it. The one considers the subject from the 

 side of geography, studies regions ; the other con- 

 siders it from the side o^ botany, studies plants. 

 The former may trace the distribution of species, 

 but the latter traces the variation of a particular 

 species or a particular organ. It is necessary to 

 distinguish the two, not only because they are un- 

 like, but because they are commonly confounded. 



3. Proceeding from the study of climatal varia- 

 tion is the study of the adaptability to climate, or 

 acclimation. It is to the ability of plants to over- 

 come obstacles of climate that we owe much of 

 plant distribution. When we throw man into the 

 foreground as an agent in the adaptation of plants 

 to climate, we study acclimatisation — the act of man 

 in inuring or habituating a plant to a climate as first 

 injurious to it. The results of acclimatization are 

 marked, and yet close and connected observation 

 is essential to their determination. There are even 

 those who contend that acclimatization does not ex- 

 ist, but they are persons who lack the power of de- 

 fining phenomena and of analyzing observation. 

 It is no doubt true that in this direction we are to 

 look for the most profound and permanent modifi- 

 cation of plants under the hand of the cultivator. 



* 



THE road question comes up again with the 

 warmer weather — one of the oldest and 

 most important of all the questions open to 

 discussion among the tillers of the soil. It has 

 been discussed from the times of the first colonial 

 governors until the present year, has given us good 

 roads and bad ones, and is still most worthy of agita- 



tion. One particular point that has often attracted 

 our notice is the liberality in work and time we spend 

 upon the drives on our own places, while neglecting 

 the public roads over which we constantly pass and 

 which are more constantly before our eyes. It is 

 the business of the community to keep the public 

 roads in good order, but the community will not at- 

 tend to its business properly and we have to suffer. 

 If we work on the roads ourselves the community 

 will benefit by our efforts and give us few thanks : 

 but we must not mind that. Let us be selfish for 

 once and work for our own benefit. We travel over 

 the road leading from our own entrance, and in 

 front of our place, more than anyone else, and to 

 remove the loose stones, drain oft the standing 

 water, or fill up a hole, is only a labor of small mo- 

 ment and gives great comfort, besides saving wheels, 

 varnish and profanity. It is too much ever to ex- 

 pect of our own public spirit or selfishness that we 

 will MacAdamize a public thoroughfare ; but a little 

 work just at the right time saves much labor in the 

 end. Two of our neighbors in a hill}' region have 

 a public road crossing their places under the same 

 conditions, natural and municipal. One keeps his 

 adjoining road well drained by cleaning the gutters, 

 letting the water run into them during the rains. 

 He picks up the loose stones and throws them aside, 

 and altogether with a few hours' labor in the course 

 of the year, has one of the best roads in the village. 

 He does a little work just when it will do the most 

 good. He turns the water into the ditch before it 

 has time to wash gullies in the road. The other 

 man says he cannot afford to work for nothing and 

 leaves the care of the road to the public surveyor, 

 who, in trying to repair a large district with a small 

 appropriation, can do but little to any part of it. 

 And so this man contentedly drives his teams a 

 number of times each day over a rough and unplea- 

 sant road, with all its wasteful concomitants. 

 Neither of these men have any appreciation and of 

 aesthetic considerations or an idea beyond what they 

 consider practical utility. 



Perhaps beyond either of them is the man who 

 not only is able but willing to work towards improv- 

 ing the road-bed, but to adorn the roadsides with 

 trees and to keep the grass neat, or even to plant 

 shrubs. The decoration of roadsides is a subject 

 on which much might be profitably said, but it must 

 be reserved for other space ; but let us think now 

 if it would not be wise for some of us to do a little 

 more to the road adjoining our own place without 

 too much fear of benefitting our neighbors ! Can 

 anyone be entirely selfish to real advantage in this 

 world ? 



